Understanding Text Purpose A text written with the author's intention and emotion. As a reader, we must acknowledge the author's intention by revealing the purpose of the text.
Three Purposes:
To persuade (membujuk): to convince the readers to agree with the author's ideas. Several types of texts that aim to persuade the readers are advertisement text, campaign speech, and persuasive letter or persuasive note.
To inform (menginformasi): to inform a particular issue through a text. Several texts that aim to inform people are exposition text, article, encyclopedia, and direction.
To entertain (menghibur): to entertain the readers as well as to invite them to use their imagination through a text, such as narrative, poem, song, and prose.
Keywords
To persuade
To argue against (berdebat melawan sesuatu)
To argue for (berdebat mendukung sesuatu)
To convince (meyakinkan)
To criticize (mengkritisi)
To inspire or motivate a change (menginspirasi atau mendorong perubahan)
To against (melawan)
To inform
To analyze (menganalisa)
To clarify (mengklarifikasi)
To discuss (mendikusikan)
To establish (mengembangkan)
To explain (menjelaskan)
To teach (mengajar)
To give a fact or facts (memberikan fakta)
To entertain
To amuse (menghibur)
To delight (menyenangkan)
To frighten (menakuti)
To describe feelings or appearance (mendeskripsikan perasaan atau penampilan)
Tips for Questions about Purpose of the Text
Pay attention to the core of the question: whether it asks about the purpose of the whole text or the purpose of the particular part of the text. This is one of helpful solutions to save time.
Pay attention to the type of the text. a. If it is a narrative, song, drama, or poem, the goal is exactly to entertain (menghibur). b. If it is a text that provides information in a form of a description, study result, social or science and technology issues, news, the goal of the text is to inform (menginformasikan). c. If the text provides the author's opinion (pros/cons) toward a certain issue, it is exactly to persuade the readers (mengajak). The author aims to invite and influence the readers to do something.
Understand the content of the text by paying attention to the main idea (ide pokok) as well as the conclusion (kesimpulan). As you understand the text, finding the author's purpose in producing the text would be easier.
EXAMPLES
Across the United States, COVID-19 vaccinations are changing seniors' daily lives in ways large and small a year after the pandemic drove many in the high-risk group into forced isolation. Older Americans are again visiting family members, eating at their favorite restaurants and shopping in stores without fear of death or hospitalization.
In this passage, the author’s main purpose is to...
A. give news about the life of elderly after the vaccination
B. encourage a longer isolation for the elderly
C. explain why the elderly population decreased after vaccination
D. amuse readers by giving good news about COVID-19 vaccination
E. argue that vaccination is not for the elderly
Steps of Answering the Question
Pay attention to the question; this question asks about the purpose of the text as a whole(secara keseluruhan), so we have to understand the entire text.
By seeing the type of the text, this is a news item text, jenis teks di atas adalah news item, yakni teks berita yang bertujuan untuk memberikan informasi kepada masyarakat. Therefore, the option B (to encourage/mendorong), D (to amuse/menghibur), and and E (to argue/berdebat) are completely false.
To understand the content of the text, pay attention to the main idea of the text. The first sentence says that, "COVID-19 vaccinations are changing seniors' daily lives" (vaksinasi COVID-19 merubah kehidupan sehari-hari para lansia). This sentence serves as the main idea of the following sentence; "Older Americans are again visiting family members, eating at their favorite restaurants and shopping in stores without fear of death or hospitalization" (para warga lansia Amerika mulai mengunjungi anggota keluarga, makan di restoran favorit mereka, dan belanja di toko tanpa harus merasa takut dirawat). This sentence displays the daily life of the elderly (kehidupan sehari-hari lansia) that has become normal after getting vaccinated.
It can be concluded that the correct answer is A (give news about the life of elderly after the vaccination/memberikan berita tentang kehidupan lansia setelah vaksinasi)
Understanding Text Purpose A text written with the author's intention and emotion. As a reader, we must acknowledge the author's intention by revealing the purpose of the text.
Three Purposes:
To persuade (membujuk): to convince the readers to agree with the author's ideas. Several types of texts that aim to persuade the readers are advertisement text, campaign speech, and persuasive letter or persuasive note.
To inform (menginformasi): to inform a particular issue through a text. Several texts that aim to inform people are exposition text, article, encyclopedia, and direction.
To entertain (menghibur): to entertain the readers as well as to invite them to use their imagination through a text, such as narrative, poem, song, and prose.
Keywords
To persuade
To argue against (berdebat melawan sesuatu)
To argue for (berdebat mendukung sesuatu)
To convince (meyakinkan)
To criticize (mengkritisi)
To inspire or motivate a change (menginspirasi atau mendorong perubahan)
To against (melawan)
To inform
To analyze (menganalisa)
To clarify (mengklarifikasi)
To discuss (mendikusikan)
To establish (mengembangkan)
To explain (menjelaskan)
To teach (mengajar)
To give a fact or facts (memberikan fakta)
To entertain
To amuse (menghibur)
To delight (menyenangkan)
To frighten (menakuti)
To describe feelings or appearance (mendeskripsikan perasaan atau penampilan)
Tips for Questions about Purpose of the Text
Pay attention to the core of the question: whether it asks about the purpose of the whole text or the purpose of the particular part of the text. This is one of helpful solutions to save time.
Pay attention to the type of the text. a. If it is a narrative, song, drama, or poem, the goal is exactly to entertain (menghibur). b. If it is a text that provides information in a form of a description, study result, social or science and technology issues, news, the goal of the text is to inform (menginformasikan). c. If the text provides the author's opinion (pros/cons) toward a certain issue, it is exactly to persuade the readers (mengajak). The author aims to invite and influence the readers to do something.
Understand the content of the text by paying attention to the main idea (ide pokok) as well as the conclusion (kesimpulan). As you understand the text, finding the author's purpose in producing the text would be easier.
EXAMPLES
Across the United States, COVID-19 vaccinations are changing seniors' daily lives in ways large and small a year after the pandemic drove many in the high-risk group into forced isolation. Older Americans are again visiting family members, eating at their favorite restaurants and shopping in stores without fear of death or hospitalization.
In this passage, the author’s main purpose is to...
A. give news about the life of elderly after the vaccination
B. encourage a longer isolation for the elderly
C. explain why the elderly population decreased after vaccination
D. amuse readers by giving good news about COVID-19 vaccination
E. argue that vaccination is not for the elderly
Steps of Answering the Question
Pay attention to the question; this question asks about the purpose of the text as a whole(secara keseluruhan), so we have to understand the entire text.
By seeing the type of the text, this is a news item text, jenis teks di atas adalah news item, yakni teks berita yang bertujuan untuk memberikan informasi kepada masyarakat. Therefore, the option B (to encourage/mendorong), D (to amuse/menghibur), and and E (to argue/berdebat) are completely false.
To understand the content of the text, pay attention to the main idea of the text. The first sentence says that, "COVID-19 vaccinations are changing seniors' daily lives" (vaksinasi COVID-19 merubah kehidupan sehari-hari para lansia). This sentence serves as the main idea of the following sentence; "Older Americans are again visiting family members, eating at their favorite restaurants and shopping in stores without fear of death or hospitalization" (para warga lansia Amerika mulai mengunjungi anggota keluarga, makan di restoran favorit mereka, dan belanja di toko tanpa harus merasa takut dirawat). This sentence displays the daily life of the elderly (kehidupan sehari-hari lansia) that has become normal after getting vaccinated.
It can be concluded that the correct answer is A (give news about the life of elderly after the vaccination/memberikan berita tentang kehidupan lansia setelah vaksinasi)